Joe served the community as Debbie Cook's Planning Commissioner, Devin Dwyer's Public Works Commissioner and currently serves as Jill Hardy's commissioner on the Charter Review Commission. He was instrumental in the success of Surf City Nights, Huntington Beach's popular Tuesday night downtown event. Joe Shaw is the former owner of two successful downtown Huntington Beach retail stores. He recently began a public relations consulting business, Progressive Group.

He was a founding member of the Downtown Huntington Beach Business Improvement District, serving on the board in its first year and is a former member of the Huntington Beach Visitors and Convention Bureau's Public Relations Committee. He serves on the board of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, and is proud to be a docent at Shipley Nature Center and a member of Save Our Strays of Huntington Beach.

Joe is a longtime community volunteer and helped raise money for our local schools through his retail stores.

Joe was born at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. He’s the son of retired Air Force veteran Joe Shaw Sr. and Kathleen Shaw. Joe’s mother was a Baptist Sunday School Teacher and school teacher’s aide. He has three brothers and two sisters, four nephews and a niece. Joe lives in the Starlight Mesa neighborhood.

After graduating from Cal State LA with a bachelor's degree in Journalism, Joe created numerous award-winning communications programs for several Los Angeles area non-profit social services agencies, including the AIDS Service Center in Pasadena and the Braille Institute. Joe has received numerous Golden Advocate Awards from the Heathcare Public Relations and Marketing Association.

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Surf City Nights: A Success!

In July 2006, Joe, a founding member of the Downtown Business Improvement District, proposed closing Main Street on Tuesday Nights. Downtown Merchants, the City Council and city staff embraced Joe’s idea. That’s how Surf City Nights was born.

The weekly Tuesday night festival is so successful, it’s now permanent and a money maker. It’s an example of Joe’s ability to come up with new ideas and approaches to making our city work better.

About Joe

• Charter Review Commission Member

• Former Huntington Beach Public Works Commissioner

• Former Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner

• Created the plan that inspired Surf City Nights

• Board member of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust

• Member, Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce

• Founding board member of the Downtown Business Improvement District

• Former member of the Huntington Beach Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Public Relations Committee

• Small Business Owner

Serving Our Community

Paid for by Joe Shaw For City Council 2010 ID # 1318702.

The Best Way to Save Water: Plant a Native Garden

Former Huntington Beach Mayors Debbie Cook & Connie Boardman joined Councilwoman Jill Hardy, daughter Kalissa and Councilman Devin Dwyer at Joe’s planting party in June 2009.

Flowers begin to bloom a couple of months after the initial planting. Pictured are Indian mallow, top, and Salvia Fremontii, bottom.

In March 2009, Huntington Beach implemented Stage 1 of their water management plan, designed to conserve 10 percent or more of municipal water use. Stage 1 involves asking the public to conserve water voluntarily.

The number one use of water in our homes is residential lawn watering. Many homes use much more than 50 percent of all their water on their lawns. The city provides a wealth of water-saving tips on its website. But too often though, the best step one can take to conserve household use of water gets lost in the details.

As a Public Works Commissioner, Joe had already been exploring the idea of transforming his lawn into a California native plant, drought tolerant landscape. But with the Stage 1 announcement, he knew he had to do it.

Joe hired a landscape company to remove the grass and come up with a plan for the yard. In June 2008, friends and neighbors came over to a “planting party” to help plant the nearly 100 plants that make up his new landscaped native garden.

Now, months later the plants are well established and will need to be watered only once a month. That’s a big water savings. Not only does that make the monthly water bill go down, now his garden is a mecca for native butterflies and birds.

“My native garden is a real joy,” Joe says. “I love the idea of helping the community by reducing my water use and in turn I’ve been given what amounts to a small native plant and animal reserve right outside of my front door.”

"Joe Shaw was there from the beginning, helping to make

Surf City Nights a reality.”

- Connie Pedenko

Former Executive Director

Downtown Business Improvement District